THE WAY OF THE DREAMCATCHER-Spirit Lessons with Robert Lax: Poet, Peacemaker,
Sage
Steve T. Georgiou, Novalis Press,
2002) ISBN 2-89507-244-2 (PB) $19.95
As a disillusioned young man, Steve Georgiou
travelled to Patmos, Greece, and through a fateful encounter with a
stranger met Robert Lax. Lax, Thomas Merton's best friend, who had to
many disappeared three decades ago.
Dreamcatcher is a book of visions. Reality
is replaced by "The Playground of the Lord." Through his meetings
with Lax, Georgiou excavates the life of a saint, a sensitive, humble
person like none he has met before.
Mining the heart of Lax, Georgiou touches
the subjects Lax reveals in: Art, Craft, and Spirit.
From the days when a Circus was his arena
to the blue-doored heritage where he lived in Patmos, Dreamcatcher captures
a man immersed in the moment who believes God is here and Now and everywhere.
Georgiou book has dozens of pictures that
give us further insights into the life of Lax, and he describes Lax's
life by saying, "Attention to the moment, self-discovery, communion
with others, reconnection with the divine, a going with the flow, a
kind of mystical travelling, a kind of dreaming....its all there."
From his daily routine, his love of cats, his poetic skills, and his
writing by flashlight in the darkness, one becomes mesmerized by Lax
as revealed by Georgiou.
In summary the author states, " His
insight and counsel had always enlightened and inspired me. But more
than anything else, I think it was his presence which consistently impressed
me, the way he moved and spoke, the whole manner of his peaceful, happy
being. Calmly, and with subtle power, he intoned that anything is possible
in God, providing one is compassionate and attentive. And coming from
a voice like his, that meant a great deal. Lax's life in itself had
proved that a man could love so much that he became a living blessing.
He gracefully showed how creature, creation, and Creator could harmoniously
merge and give birth to radiant possibilities. He revealed bright paths
of fulfillment and freedom. There was no "gorwing old" in
Lax, only the joy of new beginnings."
Georgiou's closing pages left me in tears.
I don't usually cry reading the closing remarks in the epilogue, but
this time I did. The symbols that Georgiou and Lax shared will bear
a fruition for eternity. And the mystical day on which Lax died was
also stunning to me.
For two days I couldn't read anything
else I was so stunned in awareness of how I had been in the presence
of a great man.
Everyone who has heard of Merton and Lax
needs to read this book. It is a "spiritual feast of magnificient
order. Don't Wait !!"
Quotes by Lax:
"Most of the my time is spent alone
listening, writing, reflecting. I do need to be alone, undistracted,
so that I can best hear myself think."
"You have to live what you are writing,
and if you are writing from your heart, if you are a "soul-scribe,"
good things will happen."
"Giving someone your one hundred
percent undivided attention is like extending a blessing."
"When we forgive ourselves and each
other, things that interfere with the flow of holiness dissolve."
DAN
KENNETH PHILLIPS
July 13, 2002
WEB SITE LINKS RELATED
TO THIS ARTICLE
Thomas
Merton and Robert Lax: A Friendship in Letters by Arthur W. Biddle
Poet
Robert Lax to receive St. Bonaventure University Arts Award
The
Poet - San Francisco. Includes article about Kerouac.
Thomas
Merton - Monk and Poet
SITEMAP
OF DAN KENNETH PHILLIPS WORK